Our Story

My name is Melissa and I live in Arlington, Virginia with my super handy husband, Jim, two kids, and one crazy mutt named Angus.  I'm a lawyer by day, but decorating and DIY are my true passions! 


We moved into our 1940 colonial in June 2002 after house shopping for about 9 months in a red hot DC housing market.  We are only the third owners of our house.  The last family lived here for over 50 years and raised 4 children.  As you can imagine, the house needed a lot of updating so we started working on cosmetic updates immediately - peeling wallpaper, painting, redoing hardwood floors.  By 2009, we realized that we couldn't leave our house for a bigger house because we loved our house, our neighborhood, and the school districts that our children would eventually attend.  Housing prices also made it financially difficult to find everything we wanted in a different house without having to do major renovations either immediately or down the road.   So, in 2009, we doubled the size of our house with the hope of making it our "forever house" and we are so glad that we did!  I doubt our house will ever be "done" but hopefully the "to do" list will get shorter!

Post renovation, here are the stats on our house -

  • ~2800 finished square feet
  • 5 bedrooms (4 upstairs, 1 in the basement)
  • 3 full bathrooms, 1 half bathroom
  • 7000 sq ft lot
  • 2 fireplaces
  • Great neighborhood - walking distance to several restaurants, stores, and Starbucks
  • Great schools - you really cannot go wrong in N. Arlington
More questions?  Please ask!